Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport is the busiest airport in the world. And not just because Erick Erickson flies from there all the time.
In 2025, the nationally syndicated news/talk radio host traveled nearly 44,000 miles through the air — and another 17,000 miles in his car — visiting radio affiliates, meeting with listeners, and pitching advertisers on his program.
43 flights. Across three different airlines. 17 different airports. And more than four full days of the 365 in 2025 were spent flying for Erick Erickson. All on his own dime.
When those figures are presented, it’s easy to ask one question: why?
Why do it? Why spend all that time and money caravaning around the country?
The Erick Erickson Show host said there are several reasons why.
“Everybody tells me I’m growing at a rapid clip,” Erickson, who saw his list of affilates nearly double in 2025, said. “I just feel frustrated with it and it dawned on me a year ago that I’ve got this live stream audience and it’s a giant audience. So in addition to doing station visits, I’ve been doing visits in places where I don’t have affiliates. I got a lot of listeners online, and we can actually directly correlate growth in the markets online to me showing up and doing events with listeners in these places I’m not even on the radio. I just have people who listen on the internet. And that’s been actually really encouraging to me as I’ve haven’t felt like I’ve picked up as many radio stations as rapidly.”
During the year, Erickson visited locations like Chicago and Columbus, where he doesn’t currently have affiliates. But he found an online audience in those cities, making it worth his while to stop in each spot.
“We started embedding geolocated messages,” Ericks shared. “So a listener in Chicago or in Columbus will hear me say, ‘Hey, you guys listening: Do you want me to come? Text me, email,’ and then we get flooded, and we can see, ‘yeah, we actually have a lot of people listening. Let’s go.’
“We’ve got an affiliate in Dayton, so I went to Dayton, saw the folks at Dayton, did my show from Dayton, and then drove over to Columbus and did an event with like 50 guys. It was a bourbon event that one of the guys took the liberty of organizing. And then I did an event in Chicago at Gibson Steakhouse.”
Erickson added that he’s seeing growth in the markets his show is heard in, as well, with upticks after stops in markets like Jacksonville, Las Vegas, and Orlando, among others.
But there’s a reason he foots the bill for the travel and the events with listeners.
“Oftentimes, the stations no longer have the bandwidth, the advertising budget, or the promotions team. So we just take it on ourselves and say, ‘You know what? We can still do it’, and rope you into the event. It’s been great, I think, for stations, and it’s been a lot of fun for me, too.”
Selfishly, Erick Erickson admitted there’s not replacement for face-time with Program Directors and Market Managers who ultimately decide whether their news/talk stations will broadcast his program.
“Not a lot of people do that anymore,” Erickson said of market visits. “My policy has been, we 100% cover the cost of it. There’s not a budget for stations to do stuff like this anymore. So if I can use my revenue to make it possible, I’m willing to do it.”
The regular travel also ensures that Erickson doesn’t live in his own news bubble. Constantly meeting new listeners or stations helps ground what does and doesn’t resonate with listeners around the country. And that’s a key advantage for him.
You
the flip side of the traveling for the show, how much does being exposed to different markets or what’s going on in different markets or what the what the audience in those markets are prioritizing? How much does that help shape and frame the content of the show?
“Take, for example, the Dayton market,” Erickson said. ‘WHIO, near Springfield, Ohio. Massive listening audience. So when they started talking about the Haitians eating dogs and stuff, I had a lot of people from Springfield that I had met at events and, and they’re like, ‘no, that’s not what’s happening. But this is what’s happening and it’s a real problem.’ And so being able to put into context, because Springfield, I’ve got a huge listenership there, being able to explain the actual story to people and why it matters mattered greatly.”
And while Erick Erickson isn’t satisfied with his show’s growth, he has stated goals for 2026.
“Everyone has said when you hit 100 stations, that’s a good metric. I’m close now. We’re at about 80,” he said. “I would love to get to 100 this year. I would love to get in every market. Getting people to open those doors, though, sometimes when they’ve already got their own internal host for some of the major companies, it’s hard.
“But I still want to be in every market. What I am realizing is that I’m getting there online and on podcasts, and I still need to cater to those audiences, even if I’m not on live on the radio. I got like 800 people a day who listen in Chicago. I have no affiliate there, but I’ve got 800 people who listen on a daily basis, and 50 of them are willing to show up at a steakhouse with me. So I might as well tell myself I’ve got the audience.”
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
